Predictors of father-son communication about sexuality

Examining the factors that influence adolescents' sexual behaviors is crucial for understanding why they often engage in risky sexual behaviors. Using social cognitive theory, we examined predictors of father-son communication about sexuality. Fathers (N=155) of adolescent sons completed a survey measuring 12 variables, including self-efficacy and outcome expectations. We found that (a) son's pubertal development, father's sex-based values, father's education; father's communication with his father, outcome expectations, and general communication accounted for 36% of the variance in information sharing communication and (b) son's pubertal development, outcome expectations, general communication, and father-son contact accounted for 20% of the variance in values sharing communication. Study findings can aid professionals in designing guidelines for programs to promote father-son general communication and sex-based communication.     

THE STIGMA OF CHARITY:

This article examines the stigma associated with needing and receiving assistance after a natural disaster. I conducted a qualitative, longitudinal study of women who survived the 1997 Grand Forks, North Dakota, flood. Based on sixty in-depth interviews and observation, the data show the ways in which the stigma affected these women when they had to accept charity, many of them for the first time in their lives. Factors that played a role include the self-sufficient culture of North Dakota, the caregiving role of giving and self-sacrifice, the experience of downward mobility and loss of middle-class status, the utilization of impression management techniques, and the ways in which the women shifted their former views of poor people and welfare recipients. I conclude with a discussion of how the examination of the stigma of charity illuminates the construction of class, gender, and race in white, middle-class consciousness.     

Gender differences in labor market wages: A comparison of industrial sector effects and a decomposition within four occupations

Women earn less than men. The reason may be due to either industrial segmentation or occupational segregation or both according to the current research. Researches focusing on one structure tend to neglect the other or to use an inadequate representation. This article examines the simultaneous impact of industrial sector and gender on imputed wages with labor force incumbents in four detailed occupations. These occupations are from a set identified as relatively internally homogeneous on measures of task performed from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Thus, within-occupational differences in work performed between males and females are minimized. The findings reinforce the importance of industrial sector for economic outcomes and demonstrate the value of an improved representation of occupation. The decomposition shows wage discrimination exists against females in each of these occupations, and in two sector-by-sector occupation comparisons, females should earn more than males.     

Understanding the role of Australian Aboriginal maternal infant care workers: bringing a cultural dimension to a critique of the ideal worker concept

Models of care that include a prominent role for Aboriginal workers are fundamental to improving the health of Aboriginal Australians. However, tension arises when these models co-exist with mainstream models, contributing to difficulties sustaining an Aboriginal workforce. The ‘ideal worker’ theory is drawn on to explore whether historical workplace norms undermine the roles of Aboriginal workers in an Australian hospital setting. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 staff and clients of an innovative maternity service, featuring Aboriginal Maternal Infant Care (AMIC) workers caring for Aboriginal women in partnership with midwives. A phenomenological methodology highlighted that unrealistic and inappropriate assumptions embedded in the ideal worker notion underpin many challenges facing AMIC workers. These workers have deep ties to their communities, with extensive responsibilities beyond the workplace. Although the hospital system relies on these ties to engage clients, this time commitment and the unbounded ways in which AMIC workers provide care are not acknowledged. Findings illustrate how the ideal worker concept has a cultural and gender dimension, which undermines AMIC workers and does not value culturally relevant care. This work has implications for ingraining cultural competence into health care, suggesting the wide-ranging contributions of Aboriginal workers must be recognised to achieve sustainable reform.     

Older Workers’ Access to Employer-Sponsored Retiree Health Insurance, 2000–2006

Using a multivariate framework, we analyze trends in employer provision of retiree health insurance (RHI), eligibility for new retirees, and retiree contributions. Data come for the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey—Insurance Component (MEPS-IC). While RHI provision to existing retirees decreased, eligibility for new retirees declined even more. Contribution requirements increased between 2000 and 2006 for retirees not yet eligible for Medicare (less than 65 years of age), but remained stable for those who were eligible (65 years of age or older). These results suggest growing financial instability for retirees.     

Individual interviews or focus groups? Interview format and women’s self-disclosure

Individual interviews have traditionally been an important method of data collection in multiple disciplines, including psychology. However, research comparing individual interviews with focus groups has generated mixed results regarding which method is more effective in investigating sensitive topics. The purpose of the present study was to directly compare the two methods with respect to young women’s verbalizations on a sensitive topic, namely their thoughts and feelings related to body image. Female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to an individual interview (n = 32) or focus group (n = 33). Participants in the individual interviews disclosed more personal thoughts and feelings about body image and had more positive perceptions of the interpersonal climate of their sessions than participants in the focus groups. These findings suggest that individual interviews may provide women with a more supportive environment in which to discuss sensitive topics.     

Measuring Progress and Well-Being: A Comparative Review of Indicators

We provide a new database sampling well-being and progress indicators implemented since the 1970s at all geographic scales. Starting from an empirical assessment, we describe and quantify trends in the institutional basis, methodology, and content of indicators which are intended to capture the broadest conceptions of human social progress. We pay special attention to the roles of sustainability and subjective well-being in these efforts, and find that certain types of indicators are more successful in terms of transparency, accountability, as well as longevity. Our taxonomy encompasses money-denominated accounts of “progress”, unaggregated collections of indicators, indices, and measures oriented around subjective well-being. We find that a most promising innovation is the indices whose weights are accountable to empirical data, in particular through models of subjective well-being. We conclude by amplifying others’ advocacy for the appropriate separation of current well-being from environmental indicators, and for the avoidance of aggregation except where it is meaningful.     

Between love and behaviour management: the psychodynamic reflective milieu at the Mulberry Bush School

ABSTRACT

This article presents findings from a qualitative research study of the Mulberry Bush School (MBS), a therapeutic residential primary school caring for children with severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. The article notes the challenges of working with children who have experienced traumatic relationship breakdown, and reviews ideas and practices developed at MBS to support the children’s development. There is a discussion of the research study’s methodology and main findings. The researchers argue that the therapeutic milieu at MBS maintains a creative tension between a secure, playful context and one where emotional disorder and disturbance are not suppressed. The study describes how a particular psychodynamic model of reflective practice has been successfully instituted at MBS to create a ‘staff therapeutic milieu’ supporting the group living and group learning through which therapy principally occurs. The article closes with comments on the applicability of this model to residential child care practice generally.